NORRISTOWN — For those who think all chiropractors are cut from the same cookie cutter, the Berardi brothers are out to prove why their Chiropractic Wellness Associates separates them from the rest of the pack.

“It’s hard to explain chiropractic to most people,” Tony Berardi said of the original alternative healing discipline that is now more than a century old. “You really have to experience it and experience us before you get the full view of it. There are so many chiropractors out there but there’s really nobody that does what we do as far as treating patients, the level of care they’re going to get and having a scientifically based approach. We strive to make people feel good.”

Tony and his brother, Matthew Berardi, who hail from Pottstown, earned their degrees from New York Chiropractic College and take a holistically scientific approach to treating patients, rather than relying on the standard spinal manipulation method.

“We’re not approaching it philosophically, where we’re going to adjust you and it’s going to cure everything’s that wrong with you. We don’t really subscribe to that,” Tony said. “It’s basic bio chemistry.

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We focus a lot on the fact that if the cells in your body are not operating at 100 percent there’s going to be disease and illness and if you’re not treating the problem, you’re just treating the symptom. It’s all based on the person because everybody is different.”

Among the tools most frequently put into service by the brothers is the proprietary technique called the Nimmo method, a system of treating “trigger points,” small areas that generate pain inside muscles and other tissues.

“Trigger Points” cause muscles to contract abnormally and distort the spine and other joints, Tony explained.

“We really fight arthritis in a sense. Any tight muscle is a dysfunctional muscle, and with any joint if you reduce or restrict the range of motion in the body it causes inflammation and the body starts to degenerate.

We like to do a lot of trigger point therapy and muscle stripping that’s kind of like a deep massage, and

I think our muscle work alone separates us. But it’s the whole package that we offer people.”

When back pain strikes, more people these days would rather look into natural healing rather than just pop a prescribed pill, Matt said.

“They want their back pain to be alleviated holistically, and more people in the medical field understand that.

Still, many don’t realize how much they could benefit from a chiropractor’s care, or they may fear being talked into a long-term commitment, noted Matt.

“Most people will go to a chiropractor thinking he will scare them into coming three times a week for the rest of their lives or they’re going to die,” Matt said. “We’re definitely not about that. We don’t just adjust the area we adjust all the muscles around the area, the tight muscles that are making the restrictions on the bones. We want to fix the whole region so that the bio-mechanical essence of the body is replaced. We do a lot of extra work that not a lot of chiropractors do, and when people walk out of our office they feel like a million dollars. And they keep coming back because they realize what we have to offer.”

While many medical practices have been ditching their DeKalb Street addresses in the last few years, the brothers jumped at the chance to be part of Norristown’s revitalization, despite the challenges.

“It was cheaper for us to come here because everyone was basically packing up and leaving with Montgomery Hospital moving out,” Matt noted. “It’s definitely not an easy process to start a business in Norristown. Once you’re here you see there’s a lot of good people, but it was very difficult. We got lucky and we’re open and now we’re seeing patients. I believe we are the only therapeutic and wellness center in the area.”

Though many medical doctors have traditionally shunned the chiropractic arts, the acceptance has grown dramatically in the last couple of decades, Matt said.

“There’s been a lot of conflict between the chiropractic and the medical fields in the past,” he admitted,

“It’s been a very uphill struggle for chiropractors. But here we like to build relationships with the primary care physician and all the other doctors and work together and try to heal patients … instead of ‘I’m a chiropractor, you’re a medical doctor and there’s a big wedge between us.’ A doctor will refer a patient to us and we’ll do the same, back and forth. The old school doctors were more about segregating, but the newer doctors see there is no need for it. Everybody can work together and help people. That’s really what we’re all about.”